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Tue, 20 Mar 2018 04:05:31 +0000Original Michael Group - Michael Teachings Archivesen-CAGurdjieff Terms and the Original Grouphttp://www.michaelteachings.org/archives/discussion/61/gurdjieff-terms-and-the-original-group
Thu, 16 Jul 2015 03:48:55 +0000dave61@/archives/discussionsIt was mentioned that the first Michael channel of our era, Sarah Chambers,and much of her group had been students of Gurdjieff (particularly throughRobert Burton), among other things, in the late 60s and early 70s. Theirstudy group started using a Ouija board and first accessed an ET and anastral "fragment" before Michael came through in 1973.

One group member was an iconoclastic warrior named David who wanted thegroup to be more Gurjieffian. The event that provoked Sarah to end theregular group meetings in 1975 (there were occasional special meetings for afew years after that) was when he smashed a vase. But, for Sarah, that wasmerely the straw that broke the camel's back. She found him to be a divisiveforce who'd crossed the line in a number of ways, and was burned out.

Channeling tends to use terms familiar to the channel and those listening,but then redefine and evolve them, as a way of moving from the known to theunknown. So Michael's original vocabulary for centers, chief features(obstacles), and body types derived from the Gurdjieff community (notnecessarily Gurdjieff himself but also his students and others who latertaught the material). However, from the start, Michael defined those termsdifferently and morphed the ideas into something different.

As far as I know, Sarah and her group didn't claim that Gurdjieff wasunconsciously channeling Michael. That idea came later through a differentchannel, JP Van Hulle.

I don't think that Michael has claimed that all their ideas are original,but certainly the specific and complex "packaging" of the material as awhole is unique. In one of the Gurdjieff community's books on body types,it's stated that body types have been taught through various esotericschools through history, but I haven't seen any examples or evidence.

If anyone, without channeling, spiritual guidance, prompting or reading, cansee clearly the roles and overleaves, etc., and find them self-evident, myhat is off to him. I've never heard of that happening, but anything'spossible. Tapping into "a powerful part" of one's "superconscious" is justone step away from channeling a specific entity; some speak of channelingone's higher self.

Many truths are self-evident once you know about them, but hard to come bywithout some prompting. For example, we can all see that people havedifferent body types, but without the knowledge of the categories, theirphysical and psychological traits, and how each type can be active orpassive, masculine or feminine, and positive or negative, it is left as avague impression. That's why we have education. Some education brings newinformation, and some just reminds us of what we already know but can'tverbalize very well, giving us a better framework for understanding.